This month, The Lilies Project is launching new monthly series at the Walnut Cove Public Library. The purpose of the workshops are two fold: to build community and to figure out what we are going to build. The main art concept I’ve worked on this fall gave me literal sticker shock. So we are starting over and figuring out what we would like to create into art out of coal ash together.

Each month we will do a different activity, but around the same theme of visioning and a community build.

The events will be held mid-month on Mondays at 11 am. This allows a pop-in with the preschoolers at 10 am and a chance to eat lunch with anyone open after the event. And you don’t even have to make anything if you don’t want. Come join in on a time of uplifting community.

December will focus on using sheet music to create some Christmas Creations. This ties in with the window display of Jester Hairston’s Christmas Spirituals in the Rutledge & Rutledge office windows. We will have hymnals to repurpose and models of different paper sculptures you can create.

2018’s Vision Board had lots of layers, too heavy to hang. Guess what… I won’t be doing that again.

I am a huge fan of creating vision boards and make a year-long vision board for the last several years. You can check out videos for 2018 and 2017 here. And 2016 and 2015 on my blog, which I have failed to update since 2017. We will be creating a smaller vision board on anything you want. I will have heavy boards, magazines, glue sticks, and scissors on hand. Bring images you want to include on your own.

Stemming off the Celebrating Courage event, we will explore John L. Hairston’s contribution to building Walnut Cove and the area through his efforts with the Yadkin Valley Economic Development District, Inc. The art activity is not yet determined, but we will remember others who have helped develop our community and brainstorm new ideas.

This monthly series will be held at the Walnut Cove Public Library. The purpose is to make art, discuss what you would like for the final installation of The Lilies Project and to hang out with our neighbors. Maybe even make new friends.

This is a very free flow event that will focus on both building community and what we will build as a community.

Susan G. Solomon has written two intriguing books about play. Her latest book "The Science of Play" talks about how playgrounds fail to serve the needs of kids. Solomon shares on her web site, "Taking my lead from behavioral sciences, I look for public play solutions that encourage risk-taking, succeeding and failing, planning ahead, gaining friends. Many of these built works are inexpensive, sustainable, and easy to accomplish."

Counter-intuitively, the most adventurous designs may be the least vulnerable to lawsuits. In other words, the work of artists is less likely to be the proverbial lightening rod to draw even the few suits that do develop. Sculpture can have fewer restraints. Teri Hendy explains that it is a matter of intent. If the sculpture is meant to be an interactive spatial experience, rather than a climbing or swinging one, then the primary issue to be addressed could be head entrapment.

Protective surfacing is often not necessary. Sculptor Patrick Dougherty’s sublime work is a good example. He is a master of willow construction. Many museums have commissioned his pieces for their premises. A number of children’s museums have hired him, too. When available to kids, these sculptures encourage fantasy, hiding, being alone; they offer the mystery of being in a unique enclosure. Common sense dictates that there be attention to random stray twigs that could injury the eye of a child running nearby.

Patrick Dougherty is my favorite living artist and recently acquired property in Stokes County. Participating in one of his builds is on the top of my bucket list. And I even have him in my mind's eye for what I hope will unfold for Walnut Cove, if funding and timing work in our favor.

Solomon highlights another artist designed playground with the work of Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, a Japanese Canadian fiber artist, who installed her first US work of art at our local children's museum in Winston-Salem. What is now known as the Kaledium houses her installation on the patio overlooking the famed Salem Tea Pot. Guests can swing on large balls that are interwoven into a cocoon of into a central web.

I adore the perfect balance of art and play that is intrinsic to both of these artists. I hope that these same elements will translate into my future site installations. I eagerly await their unfolding.

In the meantime, I have taken the questions crafted by Solomon and a couple of planning surveys, which I hope will help get the community's creative juices flowing. You have until June 25th to print them out and submit them to Oma's for $1 credit for your drink of choice! Of course, I am also open to other forms of communication. I can't wait to hear your ideas.

The Lilies Projectcaroline.armijo@gmail.com919-358-5057

The Lilies Project is funded by Artplace America and fiscally sponsored by the Stokes County Arts Council, a 501c3. The statements made are not a reflection of the beliefs of the Stokes County Arts Council.